Just Like That
by frostingdoodle
Summary: Pam deals with the aftermath of what happened inside the Authority. My take on what happened after the credits rolled, though certainly not what I want to happen.


Eric exited the Stackhouse residence to find his progeny seated on the steps of the recently renovated porch, a far change from what it had been previously, before he bought Sookie's house and changed it to his own liking. It didn't surprise him. She had been in the same position for the last hour, ever since returning from the Authority's headquarters.

He walked slowly, almost afraid to approach her. Though their bond was broken and he could no longer _feel _her, the pain that emanated from her very being was hard to miss. His unbeating heart shattered for her and for once, Eric Northman was rendered speechless.

Pam sensed his presence but didn't speak and Eric, threading too far in an unknown water, sat beside her with his leather jacket crunching at the movement, the only sound between them.

"How's Sookie?" Pam spoke in a dull tone moments later, staring ahead. The question surprised Eric and he stiffened before he too looked ahead.

"As to be expected," he stated smoothly.

Pam nodded, "and the boy?" she asked, referring to Jason.

Eric raised an eyebrow slowly. Pam was deflecting, he knew that, but she was also hurting so he would entertain her questions until she finally gave in to what she was feeling.

"With Sookie," he replied. Pam nodded yet again.

Before she even opened her mouth, Eric was answering what he knew to be her next question.

"Jessica's in the cubby," he told her, "and Nora's arranging our day transport. This time tomorrow we should be in Dallas," he explained. "Isabel and the other vampire sheriffs have offered all their resources in helping with this Billith situation."

Under any other circumstance Pam would have smirked, offered some smart remark about Bill, and rejoice in calling him Billith. But considering previous events, any hint of entertainment was impossible. She couldn't fault Eric for trying, though.

She reached out to place a hand on her maker's arm and squeeze softly. Eric placed his hand over hers and brushed her cool skin with his thumb. She succumbed to his touch and found her body leaning into his subconsciously, craving his comfort. He removed his hand from her grip to wrap his arm around her body, welcoming hers into his and wishing more than anything that he could lift her pain and take it upon himself instead.

Eric felt Pam's body vibrate next to his and the action caused him to tighten his hold on her. She lolled forward, her head falling against his chest as her arm clutched at his top. She didn't need to breathe but she felt like she couldn't. Red tears fell from her eyes as she relived the memory yet again.

* * *

_"Ew," Jessica whined as she trudged through the dark corridor, tip-toeing around the gooey mess that had once been guards of the Authority._

_"Shut it, Cheeto," Pam hissed, growing tired of Jessica's ongoing commentary whenever they came across a dead vampire._

_Jessica pressed her lips into a thin line and instead focused on keeping her gun pointed ahead. She'd never actually used a gun before so she wasn't sure how good of a help she would be with it. She could only hope that an opportunity to do so wouldn't arise. So far, so good._

_Pam's head snapped up at the various sounds of gunshots ahead and seconds later, Nora was rounding the corner, having cleared the area._

_She removed her empty clip and replaced it with a full magazine, clicking it into place like an expert. She then tossed it in Pam's direction who caught it without missing a beat. _

_"The area's clear," she informed both vampires, "but it won't be for long."_

_"So w- we should get goin' then, right?" Jessica piped up, her attempt at a steady tone fooling no one. She was nervous and terrified and wanted to get the hell out of the god damn Authority. But she also wanted to get to wherever Jason was because despite him being cold to her and not wanting to go with him originally, she loved him, and she wanted him safe._

_Pam wanted to roll her eyes at Jessica's stupidity. Surprisingly, she refrained from doing so._

_"Yes," Nora nodded. "But this is where I part ways," she explained._

_Pam managed to tear her eyes off of Jessica and change her look of annoyance into that of, well, a deeper annoyance, "what?"_

_"The transport van," she began to explain and Pam silenced her with a nod. She didn't need an explanation. The two exchanged a silent look before Nora vamp sped out of there._

_Pam began to walk again and Jessica, who was momentarily stunned by Nora's quick exit, struggled to catch up, her feet sliding along the gooey floor with a grimace._

_"We're going to get Jason, right?" she asked._

_Pam sighed but kept her eyes ahead should a guard, vampire or human, make a surprise appearance._

_"You know," she drawled, "some people would describe that boy as being two sandwiches shy of a picnic."_

_Jessica frowned. "He's not-"_

_"Don't worry, cupcake," Pam interrupted._

_Jessica continued to look confused._

_Pam halted her walking to look at the young vampire pointedly. She put on her best smile and Jessica rolled her eyes at the oncoming sarcasm._

_"Jason Stackhouse," she spoke his name as if it were an insult but feigned a cheerful tone, "is with Tara," she told her, "my progeny," she deadpanned. "Of course we're goin' to fuckin' get him." she began to walk again with Jessica catching up more easily this time. _

_"Wait, because you want to...or because he's with Tara?" Jessica asked, confused._

_"Oh, for the love of Christ."_

_Pam walked ahead, shaking her head from side to side._

_"Wait!"_

_xxx_

_"Got'cha, dead fuck!" _

_Jason grinned in accomplishment as he killed the last of the vampire guards in their way. There had been six, all of which he took out whilst Tara stood idly by, watching him like he was a boy playing a video game. He even took the time to spit on one of the gooey boots a guard had been wearing before his untimely true death. _

_"That's for my momma and daddy," he chided._

_Tara turned away, eyes wide and lips mouthing "wow" as she looked out for any other guards. _

_"I think we got the last of 'em, for now." Jason brushed his hand against his top, freeing his fingers of the bloody remains from one of the vampires._

_Tara nodded in his direction but kept her back to him, keeping guard. "For now," she repeated, agreeing in a mere mutter._

_"Personally, I don't care how many more of those fuckin' fangers I have to kill." _

_His sentence had Tara turning around and looking at him with an unreadable expression. Realisation washed over him. "I'm sorry Tara, I didn't mean-"_

_"Oh you meant it, alright," she interrupted bitterly._

_Tara shook her head with a sharp exhale, eyeing the length of his body and gritting her teeth to bite back a vicious comment._

_Jason swallowed and looked at the gun in his hand. He hated vampires. Vampires killed his momma and daddy. Vampires almost killed his sister. Vampires were dead fucks, each and every one of them, but Tara...Tara was a vampire. Tara who he had known since he was a little kid, who he protected and saved, who he grew up with and laughed with. Tara who was family and didn't judge, who he kissed and looked out for. Tara who took a bullet for his sister and who was turned into what she despised the most._

_"I jus'," Jason shook his head, his shoulders sagging. "I got a lotta anger inside of me and I know it ain't good. But this," he pointed the gun to their messy surroundings, "this makes me feel good and I know it shouldn't, I know that's fucked up."_

_Tara watched the many emotions that displayed on Jason's face. She didn't agree with his methods but the guy was hurting and it wasn't like he was putting the wooden bullets into her. No, he was saving her ass. _

_"Nah," she scrunched up her face and for a minute, Jason caught a glimpse of the old Tara shining through. "You just the same old Jason Stackhouse."_

_She smiled and he did too. A silent understanding and agreement between the two._

_"We should, ah, meet up with the others. Sook said she'd be up by now and-"_

_It was only a second. A split second. But he didn't see the guard coming around the corner. He didn't see as he raised his gun and shot a wooden bullet in Tara's direction. And neither did she._

_The bullet pierced Tara through the back and right through to her heart, immediately ending her undead life. Jason watched in horror as her face and body contorted with a single red tear sneaking from her eye in her last moments. _

_"Ja-" she tried to speak, her body shaking uncontrollably. "I-" she choked as blood pooled from her mouth. She managed to say Pam's name before she exploded into a gooey and bloody mess, joining the remains of the other vampires._

_"Tara!"_

_Fuelled with grief and anger, he raised his gun and sent three wooden bullets flying through the air and into the male guard who collapsed onto the floor immediately. Human, not vampire._

_"God!" he shouted, throwing the gun and instead running the length of the hall to where the male lay on the floor, gasping for breath. "Son of a bitch!" he yelled as he raised his arm, bringing it down with a hard punch, breaking his jaw and then beating on his face repeatedly. "What did you do?" he shouted through his tears, his voice cracking, "what did you do?!"_

_xxx_

_Pam was in the middle of feeding on a human guard, tearing out his throat when she felt it. She dropped his body to the floor with a sickening crack and stumbled. She reached out to grab something, anything, for it felt like without a steady balance she would collapse. She tried to catch her breath, a concept so ridiculous as she was dead and her lungs didn't work, but she felt like she couldn't breathe. She felt like she was dying. Like a cold spike lodged its way into her heart, twisting and turning. A pain so immense, a pain she had never experienced in her one hundred and so years. _

_A maker always knows._

_"Pam..." Jessica approached her unsurely. She even placed a hand on the older vampire's back, helping to steady her. She'd never seen Pam like that before. "Are you-"_

_Just like that, she was gone and Jessica, not wanting to be alone where guards were gunning for her left and right, used her own vamp speed to chase after her._

_xxx_

_Jason continued to beat on the guard. His face was unrecognisable, blood pooled everywhere, and he had died moments before, but he refused to stop. He __**couldn't **__stop._

_Pam arrived around the corner in a blur and her eyes zeroed in on Jason, "where is she?"_

_Jason didn't answer. His bloody and broken fist continued to meet the dead guard's face, hit after hit, his strength never failing him, fuelled by adrenaline. _

_She sped to his side, lifting him off the guard and forcing him to look at her. "Where. Is. She?" her face was so cold, her eyes even colder and the hairs stood up on the back of his neck. Jason swallowed the thick lump in his throat and nodded towards the mess a few feet ahead._

_He was dropped to the ground where he collapsed on his knees and cried into the concrete as Jessica rounded the corner. She was instantly at Jason's side, cupping his cheek tenderly._

_"It's my fault," he choked out, heaving a breath. The corners of his eyes tightened and he fell against Jessica who brought him into her arms, red tears prickling her eyes._

_Pam approached the remains of what had once been her progeny and clenched her teeth and jaw. "God damn it, Tara," she spat out. She fell to her knees and hovered her hand over the remains, wanting to touch them, wanting to cradle Tara in her arms. But it wasn't Tara. It was just a pile of fucking goo._

_She felt a gust of wind to her left and looked up to see Eric standing there. He took in the sight before him and closed his eyes momentarily. There wasn't time for comfort._

_"Nora's outside with Sookie. We need to leave," he told all three, "now."_

_Jason was clambering to his feet with Jessica's help. He rubbed at his eyes with his arm and walked with Jessica at his side, his eyes never leaving Pam and...Tara._

_"Pam," Eric looked at his progeny, but she didn't move. He nodded to Jason and Jessica who took the signal and left to get to the van._

_"Pam," he spoke again, more firmly._

_Finally, she spoke up, "I'm not leaving her."_

_Eric had never heard her sound so fragile and weak. He looked away for a moment, unable to look at his progeny in such despair._

_"We have to leave," he insisted, but with a calm and soft tone, added, "she's gone."_

_He watched as she exhaled a breath and remembered watching the same heartbreaking look flash across her features the night he released her._

_"I'm __**not **__leaving her," she repeated with a harder tone._

_The sound of thick boots in the distance alerted him to the third wave of guards. He didn't have time to argue with her. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, ignoring her cries of pain and protest. He sped out of the Authority, and he didn't look back._

* * *

Eric cradled Pam's body to his own. He tangled his fingers in her blonde locks and pressed soft kisses to her curls. She wracked with sobs against him, each growing in volume as she succumbed to her grief and mourned her progeny.

"It's okay," he spoke with a tone that seemed too gentle for a vampire like Eric Northman, but a tone reserved for Pam, his childe.

His already blood stained jacket earned new stains courtesy of Pam's tears. He brushed her hair from her face and lifted her head in a tender manner to look at him. He kissed under her eyes, sweeping his lips across each cheek and kissing away her tears accordingly before planting a soft, paternal one to her forehead and bringing her back into his arms again. His own eyes brimmed with tears for Pam. And for Tara.

After what felt like an eternity, her sobs subsided. "I shouldn't have left her," she spoke softly, so soft that even as a vampire he almost missed what she had said. He trailed his hand up and down her back and waited for her to continue.

"We got off the elevator and we split up. Jessica didn't want to go with Jason because of their little lovers spat," with bitter words, she carried on, "and Tara didn't want him going alone, so she offered."

With her explanation, he nodded slowly.

"She was just a baby. She didn't have trainin', Eric, not like you trained me. I shouldn't have left her," she conceded.

"Hey," he untangled himself from her, barely, but just enough to raise her head yet again. She avoided eye contact like he expected. Pam never did like opening herself up. He said he loved her more when she was cold and heartless but it was this Pam, the Pam who loved and cared and_ felt _that he loved.

"Look at me." When she didn't, he cupped her chin and turned her head. Giving in, she looked up at her maker with red stained cheeks and beautiful blue eyes.

"It _wasn't _your fault," his words were spoken with such conviction that she almost believed him. Almost. Her guilt outweighed the latter. It pained him to see his words not taken seriously.

"Tara was a great vampire, worthy of our lineage. She didn't hesitate in coming after you. She was the one to suggest we go to Sookie for assistance. She knew the risks, but it didn't matter to her. You should be proud of her, Pamela."

Pam's eyes prickled with tears yet again and she attempted to turn away from Eric's piercing gaze, but he kept her in place and she had no choice but to look at him. She nodded slowly.

"I am," she admitted. She let the blood tears fall from her eyes freely and was welcomed back into her maker's arms where she was held with a strong grip, feeling like Eric's hold was the only thing keeping her together.

xxx

When it came time to part, Eric brushed his lips across Pam's forehead and rose to his feet. He offered his hand and pulled his progeny up from the step.

"I'll be in soon," she told him, needing a moment. He nodded and turned, walking to the door and looking back once before entering and leaving her alone.

She looked out at the land surrounding Sookie's house and watched as the sun began to rise in the distance. Not enough to burn her, not yet. After the couple of nights she had endured and the lack of sleep inside that cell, she could feel the pull of dawn. She turned to go inside, to get into the wretched cubby and spend the day with Eric, Nora and Jessica, uncomfortably, when something caught her eye.

She was quick to turn, finding herself frozen at the sight in front of her.

Tara was stood at the end of Sookie's porch, barefoot, wearing a beautiful white dress with her hair curled around her shoulders. And she was smiling. Pam couldn't ever remember seeing her smile like that. It was breathtakingly beautiful. **She **was breathtakingly beautiful.

"How?" Pam spoke delicately, afraid to approach her as if Tara would disappear at the slightest of movements.

Tara shrugged in response. "Lack of sleep, lack of blood..." she mused, "there are a lot of factors."

Pam's face fell. "You're not real."

"I'm as real as you want me to be, Barbie," she both smirked and smiled and removed herself from the railing to walk closer.

She seemed real, Pam noted. But she knew it was impossible. Had she lost it? Had she lost her mind? She briefly remembered Eric speaking of Godric appearing to him. She never knew what to make of that. But now a similar thing was happening to her, and she still didn't know what to make of it. Was it Tara's ghost, her soul? Did vampires have souls? Was it her subconscious?

As her mind whizzed with questions, Tara stopped a mere inch away from her.

Pam raised her hand to touch her progeny's cheek and to her surprise, she didn't disappear. She was there and she was _warm._ Her eyebrows came together in confusion. "I don't understand."

Tara smiled. "That's okay."

"I lost you," Pam raised her gaze from Tara's cheek to look into her eyes, "I shouldn't have left you."

"It wasn't your fault." There was a tenderness to Tara's voice, one which Pam hadn't heard before. "But you should go inside before yo' white ass fries like a damn chicken wing," she motioned to the rising sun which was slowly but surely lighting the dark land they stood on.

"I left you once," Pam stated, "I won't do it again."

Tara silenced her with a kiss. It was soft and tender, but not fleeting. She cupped Pam's cheek like Pam had cupped hers and she kissed her until she couldn't any longer. When she broke away, Pam opened her eyes slowly, drawing her thumb in soft circles on Tara's cheek. She laughed softly, "I'm losin' it."

"I know," Tara agreed, smiling, "now get to bed, bitch."

"What about you?" she sure as hell didn't want to leave her, not again.

"I'll be around," Tara mused, shrugging as if it was nothing.

"You better," Pam replied, "I'm not ready to let go of you just yet."

Pam didn't question her coping mechanism. She went into the annoyingly small cubby as the sun rose, and fell asleep with images of Tara flooding her mind.

* * *

**Random one-shot. Came to me when listening to a song and thinking about the finale. It also hurt like a bitch to write. ;_; I wasn't going to end it like that originally, but I need some fluff, so sorry about the OOC of that. But yeah. I should go write some fluffy Tara/Pam now, or at least rewatch the kissing scene like 100 times.**

** Feel free to leave Pam/Tara suggestions for a new story/one-shot. June is a long time away, I need something to keep my mind occupied! Though keep in mind that I'm not a writer and I'm sh*t with grammar and writing and stuff, I'm just a fangirl doing fangirl things. Heh. xo**


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